Parched consumers splash out on ice cream to beat heat

FANS, ice cream, sun care and paddling pools have been flying off the shelves since the beginning of the heatwave that has engulfed Britain.

Sales of ice lollies and sun creams soared by 14pc and 66pc over the past month as Britain prepared for this week’s heatwave.

Waitrose said it has had its biggest week for ice cream sales, up 36pc year on year, while John Lewis’s sales of fans and air conditioning units are up 709pc year on year. Sales of premium ice cream are up 45pc, Waitrose said.

When the country had similar weather three years ago, purchases of fans, paddling pools and reusable water bottles rocketed, with an extra £10.9m spent during the hottest week.

Experts at Kantar expect to see similar “if not even bigger numbers this time around”.

With record temperatures set to give way to more pleasant summer weather later this week, shoppers are stocking up on barbeque equipment. Asda sold at least 4.5m sausages and 1.4m burgers last week, while charcoal sales rose 400pc.

Sales of ready-to-drink spirits rose 72pc at Asda compared to an average week, while fan sales were up 1,300pc. Paddling pool sales rose 1,000pc.

The Co-op said it is expecting to sell three times as much as sun cream this week and almost a million packs of sausages and burgers.

Sales of ice lollies are expected to be up by as much as 100pc, the grocer said, with ice cream up by as much as 50pc.

As the temperature rose last week, so did sales at Sainsbury’s, which recorded an increase of 90pc from Thursday to Friday. The week finished 275pc up compared with the same week last year boosted by suncare sales, which were up 795pc at one point year on year.

At Holland & Barrett there has been a sharp spike in sales of its mineral sunscreen and aloe vera ranges.

The rise comes despite inflation putting up costs at the tills. Shoppers will have to put aside £9.94 for a typical family barbecue, rather than the £9.01 spent last year, according to Kantar.

The price of burgers has risen by an average of 13pc, halloumi is up 17pc and coleslaw costs 14pc more than it would have this time last year.